Be Careful What You Write

The following is a hypothetical email between two managers, one of whom just terminated an employee. "I’m so happy he’s gone. His behavior was so disruptive to the department. I hope he’ll get some psychological help. If you ask me I think he is bipolar. His moods were so extreme. We told him he was terminated for poor performance, since he lost that account, but that was only part of it. We just got tired of having to deal with his mood swings.”

What do you think about this email? Is there anything wrong with it?
A) No, the employee no longer works for the company so it doesn’t matter what is said.
B) Yes, the manager should not play armchair- psychiatrist.
C) No, email is private so no one will see this anyway.
D) Yes, the manager shouldn’t put anything like this in writing that could be used against the company should the employee file suit in the future.

In order to make sure that you can answer this “quiz” with confidence this article will cover the content of email, legal considerations, and situations when person to person communication is better than technology.

You are probably aware that the law has caught up with technology. This means that should an employee retain an attorney to pursue a claim of wrongful termination for example, all documents pertaining to that employee, whether hardcopy or electronic, including email, PDAs, voicemail, etc. are “discoverable.” So if you answered “4” in the quiz you were correct.

If you’re asking yourself, “how do I prevent such documentation from being discovered” you are asking the wrong question. Instead focus on educating your managers and those who supervise to understand in what situations the spoken word is better than the written word, and teach them when and how to document employee performance issues appropriately. Additionally make sure it is understood that when the delete button is pressed emails are not gone forever. There is a job that didn’t exist just 10 short years ago. Have you heard of a Computer Forensic Expert? These professionals are hired, often by a former employee’s legal counsel, to retrieve the data that companies “deleted” but actually still exists. And finally, be sure that preventative steps do not include deleting or destroying information if you are notified that an employee has filed a claim.

Here are some additional reasons to speak rather than write:
Email can get in the way of building successful relationships at workEmployees often “hide” behind email to say things they would not say face-to-faceThe written message is misinterpreted. How many times have you sent an email you thought was crystal clear only to have it erroneously interpreted by the reader? Once the send button is hit, the sender has no control over to whom the email may be forwardedWith email you do not hear the persons tone or see their body languageI am not suggesting you do away with email. I am an email junky. It is an efficient mode of communication and it creates documentation - there have been many times when documentation has saved the day. My intent is to get you to pause before you write something that may come back and haunt you. Legal considerations, communication, message clarity and relationship building are all solid reasons to think twice before hitting the “send” button. NOTE: By the way if you selected 2 & 4 you get bonus points. While answer 2 is a topic for another article, employers should leave assessments about an employee’s health (mental or physical) to the professionals or risk exposure to a claim against the American’s with Disabilities Act.